This invention relates to an apparatus for conveying under tension a long section sent out from an extruder or a rolling mill in order to cool the section until next process.
A member of aluminum, copper or steel, in the form of a pipe or shape steel, for example, sent out continuously from a extruder of a rolling mill is conveyed in the longitudinal direction and then cut into so called sections each having a predetermined length. The sections are then turned ninety degrees and sent to a starting position of a conveying and cooling. While being conveyed in parallel, the sections are cooled by natural cooling or by fans, and then conveyed to a conveyer belt leading to the next step or a collecting station.
When such sections are conveyed and cooled without being supported, the sections would bent or shrink due to cooling. For the purpose of preventing these problems, it has been proposed a section conveying apparatus in which both ends of the section are clamped by chucks so as to convey them under tension.
With the prior art apparatus, the opposite ends, which are referred to head and tail, of the sections conveyed to the starting position of the cooling table are manually clamped by head chucks and tail chucks which run together with a chain while the sections are stopped. After the manual clumping of the section by the head chuck and the tail chuck, the chain is moved to convey and cool the section. The above described procedure is repeated. Accordingly, the work for mounting the sections on the chucks is troublesome and dangerous, and the complete automation of the section conveying and cooling has been desired.